Time
Explore Air & Space articles by century or aviation era.The story of aviation from early flight to the modern era
England to Australia in 1919
Speaking of the land down under, on this day in 1919 brothers Ross and Keith Smith landed their Vickers Vimy bomber in Port Darwin to claim a £10,000 prize as the first to fly from England to Australia in less than 30 days. The challenge had come from Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes, who sti...
December 10, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Down-Under Numbers
The September 2009 issue of Australian Aviation magazine contains the country’s Aircraft Census as of July 21. Some random selections:1 Airbus A319
38 Rotorway Exec 162Fs
4 Beech 17 Staggerwings
1 Bell 206A JetRanger
1 Boeing 707
111 Boeing 737s
207 de Havilland DH.82A Tiger Moths
1 Douglas C-54
1 ...
December 09, 2009 |
By Pat Trenner
Designing a Better Torch
Think of Bombardier Aerospace, and one of the company's business airplanes—they build Learjet aircraft—might come to mind. But the well-known transportation and aerospace firm also designed the torch for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.The torch, which will twist and turn its way across Canada’s wintry...
December 09, 2009 |
By Rebecca Maksel
NORAD's 54-year-old Tradition
NORAD, according to this history, has been tracking Santa since 1955, when a child's call to Sears Roebuck was mistakenly directed to the Continental Air Defense Command instead.Inevitable, I suppose, that in 2009 you can follow Santa on Facebook, YouTube, Google Earth and Twitter.
December 08, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Solar Airplane Takes Off
A Swiss-built solar-powered airplane made its first short "flea hop" flight yesterday, in anticipation of initial test flights next year. The Solar Impulse HB-S1A, a project of Swiss aeronautical adventurer Bertrand Piccard, flew 1,150 feet, skimming along a military runway in Zurich just a meter a...
December 04, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Make Me a Supermodel
Bravo’s got nothing on THIS runway supermodel: Chicago’s Wright auction house, which specializes in contemporary design, will feature in its December 8 Important Design auction a cast aluminum wind tunnel model of a Douglas BTD Destroyer—along with a Mercedes 230SL convertible and a Czechoslovakian...
November 24, 2009 |
By Pat Trenner
Ticket to Ride
The next time you book a flight online and print your own airline ticket, give a moment of thanks to IBM and American Airlines. If it weren’t for those two companies, we’d still be carving our tickets out of stone tablets.Commercial travel was so simple back in the 1920s. One airmail plane, one ava...
November 23, 2009 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Little, Big
Size matters. (Well, at least in the surveillance world.)And three projects under way take dimensions to whole new lengths. The LEMV (it stands for Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle) is a mammoth hybrid airship championed by the U.S. Army as part of a future fleet of reconnaissance vehicles...
November 17, 2009 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Have Jokes, Will Travel
Backstage stories from Bob Hope’s USO tours.
November 17, 2009 |
By Rebecca Maksel
A Glimpse of Things to Come
A hundred years ago, the International Air Meet gave spectators a look into the future.
November 17, 2009 |
By Paul Hoversten
Gil Cohen: Aviation Artist
A new illustrated book brings aviation history to life.
November 17, 2009 |
By Tom D. Crouch
Panther Paint Job
Watch a 57-year-old warbird go from Winona rags to Blue Angel royalty.
November 17, 2009 |
By Michael Klesius
The Sub of All Fears
Workers at the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory announced on November 12 that through the use of submersibles, they had located at 2,600 feet two Japanese submarines that the U.S. military had scuttled off Oahu in 1946 after post-war assessment. One, the I-14, was designed to carry two Aichi M6A...
November 16, 2009 |
By Pat Trenner
India's Reincarnated Aircraft Carrier
According to a report in Flight International, India’s defense ministry is buying Russian-built MiG-29K fighters as "part of a 2004 order...that was incorporated into a deal for the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov.”Wait—India has an aircraft carrier?That navy workhorse, the aircraft carrier, has ...
November 12, 2009 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Freeing Spirit
NASA's Mars rover prepares to escape the worst trouble of its life.
November 09, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Not Your Father's World War II Movie
Ready to experience World War II in "4-D"? Head over to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans for the opening of Tom Hanks' latest production, Beyond All Boundaries.The 35-minute film takes viewers from Pearl Harbor to V-J Day, and will be shown exclusively in the museum's newly expanded ...
November 06, 2009 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Strike Out
Yes, our avian brothers committed feathered mayhem in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 classic The Birds, but is that any reason they should continue to be chucked into aircraft engines?Here’s the deal: All aircraft have to pass certification tests proving that the airplane can continue operating in the eve...
November 03, 2009 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Happy Birthday, Jane's!
Remember the Dewoitine D 26, the single-seat, single-engine parasol fighter trainer? Wondering how many were ever built? Open your trusty Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft, and you’ll learn that 11 were produced for the Swiss Air Force.Jane’s will also tell you the first flight of the Douglas B-66 De...
November 02, 2009 |
By Rebecca Maksel
The Bear Is Back
The winning-est Bearcat in air racing steps up once more to the starting gate.
November 2009 |
By Preston Lerner
